LATEST ADDITIONS

MP3 may be under constant attack by audiophiles, and by music-industry attorneys in the courts, but the format shows no indication of disappearing. Santa Clara, CA&ndash;based <A HREF="http://www.s3.com/">S3</A&gt;, maker of the Rio portable audio player, has reason to believe that MP3 has plenty of growth potential. The company is going after licensees for the Rio to make knockoffs, and has plans to produce Rio-type players for home and car audio this summer.

In early June, <A HREF="http://www.toshiba.com/">Toshiba</A&gt; will institute a new retailing program that embraces the Internet but favors traditional retailers. The electronics manufacturing giant will have "a defined group of Internet retailers" that will be built on a base of traditional retailers, according to an announcement made in late April. Later, the program will be expanded in stages to include Internet-only retailers. The announcement follows <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10662/">an announcement by Sony Corp.</A> late in January that Sony would begin direct Internet sales this year.

Bothered by bounce? Jonathan Scull offers some solutions for turntable owners with problem floors in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/226/">"Fine Tunes" No.20</A>. He also describes how impoverished audiophiles can make their own low-cost anti-vibration shelves. <I>Stereophile</I> readers respond with their own experiences&mdash;and a warning.

"Here's somebody who just <I>loves</I> to sing." Over the telephone, Peter Guralnick sounds sad, incredulous. "But he's unable at the end of his life to force himself into the recording studio&mdash;the fear of completion, fear of exposing your untrammeled idea to execution. What a terrible thing to lose that ability, that faith in yourself."

No artist in the history of sound recordings has a more confused recorded legacy than Elvis Presley. Thanks to several generations' worth of ruthless avarice by his label, the constant machinations and eventual fire sale by his manager, Col. Tom Parker, and his own pathetic sloth, due in part by a 20-year addiction to prescription drugs, Elvis's recorded catalog is an absolute disaster: cut and pasted, issued and reissued as both budget and full-priced collections, exploited beyond all recognition. Keeping track of Elvis's catalog is one of, if not the most, labyrinthine discography in rock 'n' roll history. When all the foreign issues and reissues of his work are taken into account, it is, (speaking from recent experience) an endeavor which severely tasks the human capacity for tedium.

Sometimes you have to wonder why big corporations gobble up small speaker companies. Most such firms are built by individualist entrepreneurs chasing an elusive dream&mdash;an up-close and personal thing that is the antithesis of the corporate mentality. That's why speaker companies are so often named after the founder.

Jonathan Scull thinks he has uncoverd <I>the</I> hot audiophile topic for the new millennium&mdash;e-commerce. He lays out the situation in <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/224/">"Fine Tunes" #19</A>. Find out what various manufacturers are up to, and why.